Conversion Vs Crucible

Both Conversion and the Crucible’s themes center around the downfall of a community due to misinformation spread throughout the group. By spreading rumors and accusing other members of the community, the characters of each novel begin a hysteria of allegations and convictions. Colleen and her friends who attend St. Joan’s The girls at St. Joan’s begin to witness a series of strange events happening to the girls at their school. Beginning with popular and wealthy Clara Rutherford, many of the girls contract an odd stress disease called conversion disorder. The disease turns into a frenzy when girls randomly begin developing the same symptoms such as hair loss and mental outbreaks. It is believed that most of the girls were faking their actions.

The girls become acquainted with a disease that is causing other girls of St. Joan's to act unnaturally. Howe’s purpose of the story was to relate the St. Joan's students to the girls of the Salem Witch trials. The themes reflect the impact of adolescent opinions on the public. The girls find themselves in a frenzy when their friends claim to have conversion disease. By playing the blame on others they are able to make sense of what is happening to them and gain attention. Gossip is the source to the downfall of the school and the potential outbreak of a national disaster. The impact of the media encouraged the girls to continue lying about the condition. Moreover, When the children feel threatened, they condemn one another. Colleen says that “it’s easy to point fingers from a position of comfort, and nothing he or Jesus says will change that” (Howe 250). The school points the blame at the school nurse to avoided the school getting bad press. Since the disease is unexplainably the children and school look to others as a reason for the issues. It becomes spiller to blame the school, the disease, and their friends instead of facing

Whether the evidence was true or fabricated the girls of Salem and St. jeans were still able to convince the town with their dramatic declarations and performances. The purpose of these events, and the purpose of the book conversion is to show how misinformation can completely transform the standpoint of an entire school or town. Each of the two events begin with a highly known person in the town who is wealthy, respected, and innocent. This leads readers to believe that the impact of social status on the town is substantial. The citizens and students looked up to Clara and Abigail as young truthful and wealthy girls. The importance of having such big personalities being the start of the destruction proves that social standing impacts the town